These open on GitHub, where the code lives.
diff --git a/latex/README.md b/latex/README.md deleted file mode 100644 index 40f41e1..0000000 --- a/latex/README.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,73 +0,0 @@ - -# ๐ LaTeX for Research, Reports, and Documentation - -Welcome to the `latex/` folder โ your starting point for using LaTeX in the development sector, academic writing, or program documentation. - ---- - -## ๐ง What is LaTeX? - -LaTeX is a typesetting system that produces beautifully formatted documents. Itโs widely used in academia, research, and technical reporting because it: -- Maintains consistent formatting -- Handles large, structured documents with ease -- Produces publication-ready PDFs -- Supports equations, citations, figures, and multilingual scripts (including Devanagari) - ---- - -## ๐ก Why Use LaTeX in the Development Sector? - -LaTeX helps create clean, professional, shareable outputs โ critical for credibility and clarity. In our work across public health, education, gender, and MEL, weโve used LaTeX to: - -- Write fully styled **theory of change reports** -- Generate **synthesis PDFs** from raw qualitative data -- Format **national policy commentaries** -- Build **public domain working papers** -- Document **field tools, survey notes, and multilingual annexures** - -Compared to Word or Google Docs, LaTeX gives you full control over: -- Margins, spacing, headers -- Referencing (via BibTeX) -- Table layout and figure placement -- Consistent multilingual formatting - ---- - -## ๐ How to Start - -### Option 1: Use Overleaf (Recommended) -- Visit [https://www.overleaf.com/](https://www.overleaf.com/) -- Create a free account -- Upload the `.tex` files in this folder to start editing in-browser - -### Option 2: Offline Setup -- Install a TeX distribution: [TeX Live](https://tug.org/texlive/) (Linux) or [MiKTeX](https://miktex.org/) (Windows) -- Use an editor like [TeXstudio](https://www.texstudio.org/) or [VS Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) with LaTeX Workshop - ---- - -## ๐ What's Inside This Folder? - -| File | Description | -|------|-------------| -| `quick_start_template.tex` | A beginner-friendly LaTeX file with sections, references, and comments | -| `annotated_sample_document.pdf` | PDF output of the template with guidance on formatting styles | -| `field_use_case_latex.md` | A real-world example of LaTeX used in Indian NGO/research settings | -| `community_links_latex.txt` | Curated links to Indian-relevant LaTeX templates, fonts, and tutorials | - ---- - -## ๐ฎ๐ณ Tips for India-Based Use - -- Use the `polyglossia` package for Devanagari, Tamil, or other regional scripts -- Use `xelatex` compiler for Unicode and font support -- Embed custom fonts like `Lohit Devanagari`, `Noto Sans`, or `Tunga` for local reports -- Always export PDFs for sharing โ most field partners wonโt open `.tex` files - ---- - -## ๐งฐ Why This Matters - -If you care about open science, knowledge equity, or building public-domain knowledge, LaTeX is worth learning. Itโs a powerful alternative to Microsoft Word that ensures transparency, version control (especially with GitHub), and high-quality outputs. - -You donโt need to be a coder โ just follow the examples here, and reach out if you need help. diff --git a/taguette_coding/README.md b/taguette_coding/README.md index e1aa0fb..d4e9141 100644 --- a/taguette_coding/README.md +++ b/taguette_coding/README.md @@ -1,11 +1,58 @@ -# Taguette Coding +# Qualitative coding with Taguette -This folder contains a real field-based qualitative transcript coded using [Taguette](https://taguette.org), an open-source tool for visual tagging. +One coded focus group discussion, start to finish: the transcript, the tag +file Taguette produced, and the export that goes to analysis. This is the +worked example for the qualitative half of a mixed-methods evaluation, and +the method note that goes with it. -## ๐ Folder Contents -- `chhattisgarh_chw_fgd.txt` โ Real translated field transcript from a community health worker -- `chhattisgarh_chw_fgd.tag.json` โ Taguette-compatible tag file with three theme codes -- `tag_summary_export.html` โ Visual export of tags with sample quotations +| File | What it is | +|---|---| +| `chhattisgarh_chw_fgd.txt` | A focus group discussion with community health workers, as the transcript Taguette reads. Illustrative, not a real group | +| `chhattisgarh_chw_fgd.tag.json` | The tags applied to it, with the highlighted spans, in Taguette's own export format | +| `tag_summary_export.html` | Every highlight grouped by tag, which is the document you actually analyse from | -## ๐ง Use Case -Taguette supports thematic coding of qualitative transcripts like FGDs and interviews. This example is from a CHW in rural Chhattisgarh describing climate-driven fieldwork adaptations. Useful for researchers, MEL teams, and documentation practitioners. \ No newline at end of file +Taguette is free, open source, and runs locally (`pip install taguette`, +then `taguette`) or on the hosted service. It does one thing: highlight a +span of text and attach a tag. That is the whole of qualitative coding, and +the expensive tools do not do it better. + +## The method, in the order it happens + +**1. Decide the coding frame before opening the transcript.** A codebook of +eight to fifteen tags, each with a one-line definition and an example, drawn +from the evaluation questions. Tags invented while reading are fine and +should be added, but a frame that exists only in the coder's head cannot be +applied by a second coder, and a second coder is the whole check. + +**2. Code the same two transcripts independently, then compare.** Where two +coders tag the same passage differently, the definition is ambiguous. Fix +the definition, not the coder. Do this before coding the other thirty. + +**3. Code for what is said, not for what you expected.** The tag +`barrier_transport` goes on a passage about the bus not coming, whether or +not the evaluation question was about transport. Tags for the questions you +came with are necessary; tags for what the respondents brought are where the +finding is. + +**4. Export by tag, and read each tag's passages together.** That is what +`tag_summary_export.html` is. A theme is a tag whose passages, read +together, say something the individual quotes did not. + +**5. Count, carefully.** "Eleven of fourteen groups raised transport +unprompted" is a defensible sentence. "78 per cent of respondents cited +transport as a barrier" is the same fact dressed as a survey result, and a +focus group is not a sample. + +## What this cannot do + +Taguette has no query language, no co-occurrence matrix, no inter-coder +statistic. For a study with a hundred transcripts and three coders, that +matters, and NVivo or MAXQDA earn their price. For an evaluation with +fifteen focus groups and one coder checked by a second, they do not. + +## Related + +`../visual_ethnography_descript/` for the same discipline applied to recorded +rather than transcribed material. `../annotated_research/annotation_scheme.md` +tag **[MEASURE]** for what a self-reported answer in a group setting is +evidence of. diff --git a/tool_notes/README.md b/tool_notes/README.md index 5dd3f7f..79d3d1a 100644 --- a/tool_notes/README.md +++ b/tool_notes/README.md @@ -1,13 +1,13 @@ # tool_notes -Short, honest notes on seven visual and collaboration tools, with the one +Short, honest notes on nine visual, document and collaboration tools, with the one worked file each note needs to make its point. When the tool is worth the setup, when it is not, and what will go wrong. -These were seven top-level folders, each presented as a module. None of them +These were nine top-level folders, each presented as a module. None of them is: the tools live on their own sites, and what a repository can usefully hold about them is a page of judgement plus a small example, which is what each -folder now contains. The seven are here together so nobody mistakes a +folder now contains. They are here together so nobody mistakes a screenshot for a template again. | Note | Tool | What is actually in the folder | @@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ screenshot for a template again. | [`flourish_charts/`](flourish_charts/) | Flourish | The iframe embed snippet, and a screenshot of a chart | | [`powerbi_reports/`](powerbi_reports/) | Power BI | An adaptation note. No `.pbix` ships; the note links to Microsoft's sample | | [`miro/`](miro/) | Miro | A human-centred design session outline and links. No board ships | +| [`excel_visuals/`](excel_visuals/) | Excel | Three chart templates as `.xlsx`: bullet, waterfall, Gantt | +| [`latex/`](latex/) | LaTeX | A report skeleton that compiles with `pdflatex`, and where it is worth the learning curve | ## The one judgement that applies to all seven diff --git a/tool_notes/excel_visuals/README.md b/tool_notes/excel_visuals/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..12f9e73 --- /dev/null +++ b/tool_notes/excel_visuals/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +# Excel + +Three chart templates as `.xlsx`, for the colleague who will only ever open +Excel. Each has a data sheet you overwrite and a chart sheet that redraws. + +| File | What it makes | Use it for | +|---|---|---| +| `bullet_chart_template.xlsx` | A bar against a target line and shaded bands | Target versus actual, one indicator per row | +| `waterfall_chart_template.xlsx` | Rising and falling bars from a start value to an end value | What moved a total between two periods | +| `gantt_chart_template.xlsx` | Horizontal bars on a date axis | A field schedule, one row per activity | + +## When to use it + +The audience will edit the numbers themselves, and they work in Excel. A +programme manager updating a bullet chart each quarter needs a file they can +open, not a script they cannot run. These three cover the charts a monitoring +report needs and a default Excel chart does badly. + +## When not to + +Anything that will be produced more than once from data that arrives as a +file. Paste-into-a-template is a manual step every time, and it is the step +that gets done wrong at 6 p.m. before a deadline. FieldStack's +`custom_viz/` has the bullet and waterfall charts as R code that reads the +data and draws. + +## What goes wrong + +Excel charts reference cell ranges. Adding a row below the data does not +extend the chart; the new row is silently left off. Convert the data range to +a Table (Ctrl+T) before pointing the chart at it, and it grows. + +Colours are set per series. A chart copied into a report with the +organisation's palette will need each series recoloured; there is no theme +file here, because Excel's chart themes do not travel reliably between +machines. diff --git a/excel_visuals/bullet_chart_template.xlsx b/tool_notes/excel_visuals/bullet_chart_template.xlsx similarity index 100% rename from excel_visuals/bullet_chart_template.xlsx rename to tool_notes/excel_visuals/bullet_chart_template.xlsx diff --git a/excel_visuals/gantt_chart_template.xlsx b/tool_notes/excel_visuals/gantt_chart_template.xlsx similarity index 100% rename from excel_visuals/gantt_chart_template.xlsx rename to tool_notes/excel_visuals/gantt_chart_template.xlsx diff --git a/excel_visuals/waterfall_chart_template.xlsx b/tool_notes/excel_visuals/waterfall_chart_template.xlsx similarity index 100% rename from excel_visuals/waterfall_chart_template.xlsx rename to tool_notes/excel_visuals/waterfall_chart_template.xlsx diff --git a/tool_notes/latex/README.md b/tool_notes/latex/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58e7caa --- /dev/null +++ b/tool_notes/latex/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +# LaTeX + +A quick-start template for a report, and notes on where LaTeX is worth the +learning curve for a development researcher. + +| File | What it is | +|---|---| +| `quick_start_template.tex` | A report skeleton: title, abstract, sections, a table, a figure, a bibliography stub. Compiles with `pdflatex` and nothing else installed | +| `field_use_case_latex.md` | Where it has earned its place in this line of work | +| `community_links_latex.txt` | Where to ask | + +## When to use it + +A document with many numbered equations, a document with fifty tables that +have to look identical, or anything going to a journal that supplies a class +file. And a working paper where the bibliography is a `.bib` file that will +be reused: BibTeX is the reason to learn LaTeX, and it pays back on the +second paper. + +## When not to + +A report co-written with a programme team. Word's track changes is how most +of the sector reviews a document, and a LaTeX source is unreadable to a +reviewer who does not write it. Overleaf softens this and does not remove it. +For a donor report, a policy brief, or anything a non-technical colleague +must edit, use Word or Quarto, which renders to Word. + +Quarto is the honest middle: Markdown with code chunks, rendering to PDF +through LaTeX when you want that and to Word when you do not. FieldStack's +`notebooks/` and `automated_reporting/` are Quarto. + +## What goes wrong + +Tables. A regression table pasted from Stata or R into LaTeX by hand is +wrong by the third revision. Use `esttab` in Stata or `modelsummary` in R to +write the `.tex` directly, and `\input` it, so the table in the paper is the +table the code produced. + +Fonts for Indic scripts need `xelatex` or `lualatex` rather than `pdflatex`, +and a font that has the script. `pdflatex` will compile a document with +Hindi in it and print boxes. diff --git a/latex/community_links_latex.txt b/tool_notes/latex/community_links_latex.txt similarity index 100% rename from latex/community_links_latex.txt rename to tool_notes/latex/community_links_latex.txt diff --git a/latex/field_use_case_latex.md b/tool_notes/latex/field_use_case_latex.md similarity index 100% rename from latex/field_use_case_latex.md rename to tool_notes/latex/field_use_case_latex.md diff --git a/latex/quick_start_template.tex b/tool_notes/latex/quick_start_template.tex similarity index 100% rename from latex/quick_start_template.tex rename to tool_notes/latex/quick_start_template.tex diff --git a/visual_ethnography_descript/README.md b/visual_ethnography_descript/README.md index 28c523a..e4e650d 100644 --- a/visual_ethnography_descript/README.md +++ b/visual_ethnography_descript/README.md @@ -1,10 +1,53 @@ -# Visual Ethnography with Descript +# Working with recorded fieldwork -This folder demonstrates how to layer field-based transcripts into narrated visual ethnographies using [Descript](https://www.descript.com/), a multimedia editing tool. +A transcript, and a storyboard that shows how a recording becomes analysable +material. Descript is the tool named because it transcribes and lets you cut +the recording by editing the text, but the method is the same in any +transcription tool, and most of it is about what happens before the +recording is made. -## ๐ Folder Contents -- `climate_field_transcript.txt` โ A real narrative transcript from field interviews on climate change -- `descript_storyboard.md` โ Step-by-step narration cues and visual prompts for producing an ethnographic video +| File | What it is | +|---|---| +| `climate_field_transcript.txt` | A transcript of an interview about a flood season with a farming household. Illustrative | +| `descript_storyboard.md` | The sequence from recording to clips to quotes, and what is decided at each step | -## ๐ง Use Case -Descript is excellent for turning raw transcripts into multimedia storytelling. This example supports research teams and MEL practitioners in communicating lived realities through narrative voice and field visuals โ especially for participatory documentation in India. \ No newline at end of file +## The method + +**Consent covers the recording, and it is a different consent.** Agreeing to +be interviewed is not agreeing to be recorded, and agreeing to be recorded is +not agreeing to have a clip of your voice shown at a workshop. Three +consents, asked separately, and the third can be withheld while the first +two are given. The storyboard has the wording. + +**Transcribe everything, quote sparingly.** Automatic transcription of Hindi +or Bangla speech in a noisy courtyard is around 80 per cent accurate on a +good day, which is good enough to find the passages and not good enough to +quote. Every quoted passage is checked against the audio by someone who +speaks the language. Descript makes this fast because the transcript is +time-linked; it does not make it optional. + +**Cut for the respondent's meaning, not the report's.** A twelve-second clip +in which a farmer says the embankment failed is compelling and may be +exactly what she said. If the following forty seconds explain that it +failed because her own village removed the sluice gate, the clip is a +misrepresentation and the fact that every word in it is hers does not +change that. The storyboard's rule is that a clip is cut with its context +visible to whoever approves it. + +**Recorded material identifies people.** A voice is identifying; a face is +identifying; a description of the field next to the embankment identifies +the household to everyone in the village. Anonymisation of a recording is +not bleeping a name. It is a decision about whether the material can be +shown at all, and to whom. + +## What this is for + +Learning products, workshop material, a donor's field visit that could not +happen. It is not evidence in the sense an evaluation needs: one household's +account, chosen because it was vivid, is an illustration of a finding +established elsewhere, and the report should say so. + +## Related + +`../taguette_coding/` for coding transcripts once they exist. +`../annotated_research/annotation_scheme.md` tag **[ETHICS]**.